Tag: Holy Spirit

Posted in Different Moments, Uncategorized

donuts from Jesus

Posted on by Wick

I was able to take a friend out for lunch recently who has visited our church for many years. He is still exploring faith and has some intellectual disability, causing him to ask many of the same questions as a 7-year-old. It can be frustrating at times but also incredibly wonder-filled. We went out to a Mexican restaurant, where he ordered a burger and French fries. He was laughing about how funny it was to order a cheeseburger at a Mexican restaurant. He smiled big when the food came and laughed when the waiter brought him a refill of his Pepsi, committing to drink it all or take it home in a “to-go” cup.

As we sat and ate, conversation wandered all over the map. We talked about things of great and little significance, and I shared scriptures with him about the love and authority of God in his life. He has a lot of questions about spiritual powers and the forces at work behind what we can see. I continue to invite him to know Jesus in a relationship and to walk in the light God provides still today by His Spirit. We agreed that many things in this world are confusing.

I asked him what other things in this world are confusing, and in the midst of his response he mentioned “donut boxes”. “They’re so hard to put together. They’re flat, but you’re supposed to put donuts in them. I just don’t even try.” It was a humbling reminder for me of the simple things we take for granted. I pointed out there was a Meijer right across the street, and I’d be happy to take him over there and do a quick lesson on donut-box-assembly. He smiled big again, and agreed that would be a great use of our time together.

We slowly assembled a good 6 or 7 boxes, putting them up on the donut case afterward for other people to use (hopefully). Then I asked if he’d like some donuts. His eyes got big for a moment, but then he responded calmly, “No that’s okay. You bought me lunch already, and that’s enough.” I told him, “Well, this time it’s not me. Jesus wants to buy you the donuts, He just wants to buy them through me.”

He chuckled a bit. “Jesus doesn’t have any money.” I explained to him my belief, all resources belong to God. God can use anything, big or small, to accomplish His purposes, and in this case it meant getting him some donuts. He reluctantly agreed to let Jesus buy him some donuts. He picked a couple apple fritters, a chocolate glazed, and a cinnamon donut.

I scanned the barcode. It was $3.95. Without thinking, I entered my phone number for the “Meijer Perks”, because I do it whenever we shop there. Immediately the screen popped up: “You have $4 in your Meijer Perks Account. Would you like to use it now?”

Even my eyes grew big this time. We hardly ever shop at Meijer, because it’s on the other side of town. I looked at my friend to make sure he noticed what was happening. “Do you see? Not only did Jesus want to buy you donuts, but He wanted you to know it was Him…not me.” He couldn’t believe it either, and we both walked out feeling like God had offered us a wink in the form of a donut. He sees us, and cares about our day – even the seemingly insigificant moments.

I don’t think my friend is ready to put his entire life into the hands of Jesus yet, but it was a fun memory to be a part of. It’s one more moment nurturing the seeds of faith. May we all look for more moments of joining (or becoming aware of) the Love of Jesus. His Love is working even now, to draw us all into greater awareness if we’re willing to take notice…

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3

Posted in Different Learning, Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

do you mind?

Posted on by Wick

What did you choose to wear today, or eat for lunch? Who did/will you choose to marry, or what did/will you choose as an occupation? Did you actually choose these things, or were you simply following a pattern pre-determined by the multifaceted details about the body/brain/family/time you were born and live within? You may or may not know – some neurologists have tried to make a case against “Free Will”. As a firm believer in the healing importance of confessing our agency, I want to offer a few thoughts on the conversation.

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, we read “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” We are given a choice. Similarly, in Galatians 5:16-17, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.” Even living as a follower of Jesus is not something we assume happens “automatically” when we believe, taking away our sense of agency. Paul writes imperatively, “live by the Spirit”, because there is the option to do otherwise.

So where does the questioning of “Free Will” come from? As highlighted well in the enjoyable book “The Unthinkable Truth“, the newest fMRI brainscan technology has pinpointed areas of our thought processes in ways we’ve never before had access to. Based on recent research, scientists can identify by a brain imaging what decision a person will make up to 10 seconds before a person is aware of their own decision being made. Which is interpreted as “The choice is made before the person consciously makes the choice.” As Bouskila writes in his fictional story around genuine research, “..the bottom line of all these studies is that between the two options – you control your brain or your brain controls you – the latter is correct.” Many believe these newest studies affirm what Benjamin Libet implied in his 1980’s experiments on the conscious free will. Our brains make decisions for us, before we are even aware of a choice being made.

Thankfully, even among those who are interpreting these things to mean we have less agency than once imagined, there is an openness to unpredictability. Recently, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky has written, “Will we ever get to the point where our behavior is entirely predictable, given the deterministic gears grinding underneath? Never—that’s one of the points of chaoticism. But the rate at which we are accruing new insights into those gears is boggling—nearly every fact in this book was discovered in the last fifty years, probably half in the last five.”

In the midst of all these things, our world is also watching the rise of artificial intelligence, and many are questioning the difference between a computer, and the human mind. Can consciousness be fabricated? If not fabricated, can it at least be transferred? Philosopher Christof Koch writes, “Computational functionalism is a widespread article of faith in Silicon Valley and the tech industry. From this point of view, the whole-brain simulation of your brain will possess your mind, or at least a fair approximation of it, and will be conscious. The integrated information theory of consciousness takes a starkly different approach. It argues that consciousness is not a type of computation but is fully and completely specified by the unfolded causal powers of the system upon itself, whether a brain or a computer.“

Echoing Koch, neuroscientist Peter Ulric Tse reminds us our brains are not simply machines meant to do supercomputing. They are unique and non-reproducible, no matter how improved our “artificial intelligence” (which are mostly just Generative LLMs anyways) may become. As helpful as technology might be (ethics of regenerating using unique creative content aside), we have capacity as human beings that no machine will ever be capable of. This capacity is retained even with current debates of our “free will”. Tse writes, “..my journey into issues concerning the maximization of human liberty began with my efforts to escape the faulty metaphor of the brain as a computer, and place meaning rather than information at the center of what brains, minds, and consciousness are for.” Tse sees current research into calculating when a particular decision was made, and maintains that no matter when or how a decision is made, a foundation of our humanity is our creative freedom and imagination. He writes, “We can strive to become a self that we imagine, thereby choosing to become a new kind of chooser operating in a new kind of world of our own choosing.“

All of this echoes recent writing by Jim Wilder in his book “Renovated”, where he takes some familiar content by Dallas Willard and makes new contributions toward the healing transformation God desires through attachment. Many people find it difficult to “become a Christian” by simply adopting new beliefs or assenting to a particular new Truth. I believe this is why God has invited us to experience healing (often called “salvation”, in the eternal sense) in an intentional community (Church) of loving relationships, and in loving relationship with our Triune God. Wilder writes, “The ability to choose (will) is a very flimsy cortical function located on the outside of our brain…attachments (relational identity), at a brain level (beginning in the brain stem) create an identity that operates faster than conscious thought.” To put it simply, as others have written, “We are transformed more by what we love, than what we think.”

All of this is to say, as new research might emerge about when our brains decide something, or what computers might be capable of – remember that you are uniquely able to exist as you today. You are capable not only of sensing, but of discovering the meaning behind what you sense, and the mutual accountability of discovering that meaning with others. You are capable not only of deciding based on what you see, but based on the future realities you’re able to imagine prayerfully together with the Holy Spirit. You’re invited to confess the choices you had agency in making (James 5:16), repent (turning away & having a changed mind), being set free from past narratives by the authority of Jesus, so that together in a community of beloved others, we can collectively experience healing restoration and transformation toward a New Creation God has already begun in the resurrected Jesus Christ.

This is literally the super-natural becoming our new natural. I am thankful for the healing that has come already, and looking forward to how His healing continues to arrive personally, communally, and universally.

Posted in Different Scriptures

Pentecost as Revival of Relationship

Posted on by Wick

            When have you wanted the Holy Spirit to do something powerful in your life? Perhaps you wanted the healing power of the Holy Spirit, or the miraculous ability to translate foreign tongues. Maybe you wanted the power of God for understanding the future, or a prophetic Word that would speak precisely what God’s heart desires for a given moment or season.
          All of this to say – I think we often approach the Holy Spirit, and even passages like Acts 2:1-21, considering all the Holy Spirit enables the people of God to do. But what if we chose to focus specifically on the person of the Holy Spirit, as we read some of these passages?
         We regularly state that we believe in a Triune God. This is a mysterious Truth from how God has revealed God’s self throughout scripture. In the Nicene creed, after mentioning God the Father, and God the Son, we confess “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”
         Jesus mentions in Acts 1:8 that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, to be His witnesses. Our world builds so much on power – on seeking it, keeping it, and protecting it. So often we hear about the power here, and become so focused on empowerment, we miss out on the person. Focusing only on the power of the Holy Spirit over the Person of the Trinity, causes us to seek a temporary tool instead of an eternal relationship. In scripture, the acts of power are always as a sign of a relationship now available.

            As we read passages like this, what if we held in mind – not “empowerment” as if these followers are all “leveling up” in some cosmic video game – gaining new abilities…but what if we listened to the description as God’s people are entering into relationship with the Holy Spirit as a person, one person of the fullness of God?
In these moments, God is revealing what has changed as we are brought to New Life by the arrival and indwelling of the person of the Holy Spirit.
             In John 14:16-18, Jesus says “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion (comforter/advocate), who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.”

        Our God wants us to know Him intimately, as He already knows us intimately. Here are some things I believe we learn about the person of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-21:

  1. The Holy Spirit comes from heaven.   Verse 2 – “from heaven there came a sound..” Heaven is where God is, and here is the source of what arrives. Luke 24:49 tells us the Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and promised by the Father.
    Are we being attentive for God to respond from His presence, or are we waiting for His help and response to arrive from the sources/systems of this world?
  2. The Holy Spirit is revealed as uncontrollable wind and yet also purposeful fire. 
    The wind arrives, and fills the entire place. The Spirit is all-encompassing, arriving in ways that fill every corner of our being and our space.  The fire arrives, but doesn’t fill the entire place. Instead, it divided so that it rested on each of them. The purifying Spirit of God is purposeful and personal.  How are you in need of the Holy Spirit to arrive in your life today?
  3. The Holy Spirit enables living according to His reality. The breath of God always brings New Life. This IS Holiness: abiding in the Love of and living in the ways of God. In the presence of God, all are united as one. Language is not a barrier. This was obviously unexpected by those observing what was happening, as Luke describes them as being bewildered, amazed, and astonished.
    Filled and being used by God for His purposes – they are being made Holy. This is His desire for our lives as well – that we would experience being so filled with His Love and Spirit, that our purposes and hearts are refined to fully reflect His own.  In what ways could the realities of God arrive as unexpected in your life?
  4. The Holy Spirit makes right what humanity has made wrong.
    There’s confusion and bewilderment here, as languages unexpectedly come together. The same confusion happened in Genesis 11:7 in the opposite direction, when God scattered the people into different languages due to their prideful ways at Babel.  In order to humble them enough that they might reach out to God (remain in relationship), God had scattered them.  Here, as relationship is restored – there is a safe place for global healing.
  5. The Holy Spirit brings glory to God – not the individual.
    They were used to prophets, priests, and kings – individuals who represented God’s Reign and Rule. Even when Jesus was with them, there were arguments about which of them would be recognized as closest to Him.
    Here they were all speaking about the mighty acts of God.
    Now the promise of Jeremiah was being fulfilled: “..this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
  6. The Holy Spirit brings fulfillment of God’s promises.
    Peter quotes the prophet Joel, reminding them of the words they were now seeing fulfilled.  In Joel chapter 2, he calls on a people who are experiencing the judgment of God to repent. To humble themselves, turning away from their own desires and toward God. He prophecies that God will respond with rescue and redemption, and then these words that His Spirit will be poured out on all people – yes even people precisely like YOU – in ways that ripple out to impact all of creation.  Scripture proclaims no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3b).  John Wesley wrote, “Every true Christian now “receives the Holy Ghost,” as the Paraclete or Comforter promised by our Lord.” (Wesley, “A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”)  We understand that we are included in those Joel talks about as able to receive the Spirit of God. We include all those we would normally overlook as those with potential to be those who speak for God…even the self we see in the mirror.

To what end? The final verse – Acts 2:21 reveals to us the most important way that we “expect the unexpected”.  Who might experience salvation?

The expectations of our world says things like:
Everyone who is born into the right circumstances..
Everyone who makes good decisions..
Everyone who achieves enough in Jesus’ name..
Everyone who lives a really really good life..
Everyone who _______ (other reasons we think God will accept us)..

Instead – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is an invitation into relationship…the one in need of salvation knowing and being known by the one saving. There are no requirements of proving any sort of ability in order to come and receive.

Do you desire the Holy Spirit – who is our living invitation into the power of relationship here and now with the Triune God? This IS Salvation. Come and receive. Come and be received by the power of the Holy Spirit, into right relationship with God.